| 4. In which ways is the initiative creative and innovative?
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Digitalization of Government payments has been proven globally to have positive impacts on economic growth and development. Specifically in a country like Kenya where a majority are classified as youths who in many cases have proven to be technology savvy. The faster adoption of e-Citizen has reaffirmed the spirit of the Kenya Government to have a paradigm shift from analogue to digital. It is everyone’s knowledge that the e-Citizen mode of payment is very innovative. For instance, the fact that the platform can easily be executed online implies accessibility to a majority of Kenyans who are in dire need of services (statistics show that approximately 45 percent of Kenyans are accessible to the internet). This implies that a majority of Kenya’s population can easily use the platform.
According to the World Bank (2014), 58 percent of Kenyan’s use mobile money transfer through the Safaricom innovative platform M-Pesa which represents the highest rate in the world. Importantly, one of the gateways that e-Citizen platform offers is the payment via mobile money. This has made it more innovative and much easier to pay for the services.
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| 5. Who implemented the initiative and what is the size of the population affected by this initiative?
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The Government Digital Payment was implemented by a Technical Committee of the National Treasury, CBK and Ministry of ICT, with National Treasury being the implementing institution. Up to date more than three million of the adult population have registered online and are able to access Government services through the e-citizen portal.
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| 6. How was the strategy implemented and what resources were mobilized?
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The Government Digital Payment Platform by the Taskforce focuses on digitizing the payment cycle (applying for payment, invoicing, receipting, payment processing and reconciliation and financial reporting). The eCitizen.go.ke - the web portal is strictly for securing a Single Sign-On (SSO) and application for payment of services requested from the MDA (MDA-web). It allows for single view of applicants across entire government services. Invoicing – an acknowledgement by MDA that coded service request has been made and it costs the applicant the gazette amount;
Receipting –modernization of government receipting and standardize acknowledgement of payment by applicant for invoiced service at gazetted cost (this enhances accountability, assures unique receipt No. for receipts across government, enhanced security features such as bar codes. QR codes and digital signature and improved enforcement);
Payment processing and reconciliation – the aggregation, settlement and depositing all payments in respect to a coded services provided at the MDA accounts in CBK and generating reconciliation reports; and
Reporting – generate daily, weekly, monthly and annual financial reports for each MDA by payment channels and services, or any other format as may be configured. It also provides the National Treasury with a global view of all MDA revenue collection.
The system is able to monitor and validate all the transactions in terms of how many transactions are made, how many new entrants registered and how much is collected each day by generating system summary chronological events
The technical, human resource and financial cost were supported by International Finance Corporation.
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| 7. Who were the stakeholders involved in the design of the initiative and in its implementation?
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The main stakeholders involved in the design and implementation of the e-Citizen initiative include the public, all Government institutions which include Kenya Revenue Authority, Central Bank of Kenya, Huduma Kenya, Kenya Trade Networks, Judiciary, all Government Ministries, commercial Banks, Safaricom and Airtel Kenya.
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| 8. What were the most successful outputs and why was the initiative effective?
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The most successful outputs of the SDGs through e-Citizen portal initiative are:-
o Attainment of a significantly cashless economy and an efficient public service delivery, reduced costs, increased efficiency across the economy and significant expansion in financial inclusion. Citizens are able to access and pay for government services through digital means such as mobile money, credit cards and internet baking - eliminating need for cash payments or queuing to make the payments.
o Elimination of cash within Government which has saved a huge costs and risks associated with cash transit and security services. In addition, cashless systems significantly eliminate Revenue leakages thus increasing the total revenue generated by the agencies. The system has saved Kenyans huge financial burden on transport and access to government services throughout the country on a 24Hour basis.
o The availability of e-Payments has eased up citizen’s time to engage in more productive activities to build our economy while also improving our global ranking in terms of ease of doing business. Improvements in accounting and transaction audit procedures which has helped the government to track taxes owed and potentially increase collection of tax revenue.
o Transparency implicit in the introduction and use of government e-payment services is a tool for combating corruption and improving public services delivery to Kenyans. In addition, bringing transactions onto an electronic platform makes it easier to keep better track of cash flows and to increase visibility and accountability and the platform also presents other numerous benefits that will change how the Government of Kenya interacts and serves citizens and businesses.
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| 9. What were the main obstacles encountered and how were they overcome?
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The main problems that were encountered during implementation were low uptake by MDAs as well as resistance to change, budget constraints, lack of necessary IT infrastructure in such as internet and computer, inadequate staff and human resource to escalate the change management to county level.
The possible solution adopted for this problems were training more trainers from various institution, adoption of advertisement through radio and TV to sensitize the public on the new service, and seek more funds from the Government and NGO s to fund change management.
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